Time Management Skills

It’s a lot less impressive when you learn that they’ve been carrying on this conversation for five days straight, already.

So the past month and change has been an extremely busy one for me. Besides my regular 9-to-5 I’ve also had a plethora of freelance work on my plate, as well. And in that time I felt that I had very little chance to game…Or at least I thought I did.

Remember how I’ve mentioned recently that I’ve been playing Final Fantasy IX. It’s only been a little bit here and there, but somehow I was able to accumulate almost 48 hours of play time on my save file for the game. That’s pretty much two full days in a one month time period. Clearly my concept of available time is a little skewed from my earlier assessments. Either that or I am just that good with time management…But more than likely, it’s the prior.

Ah the ice cave. I tried that game several times, always gave up at that point, it just didn’t make me want to play. In the end, I gave it away (along with several other PS1 RPGs I was never going to play, like the other FF games, Suikoden 2, Wild Arms, Star Ocean 2, etc) to a couple of friends who love them more than I ever would.

Grinding is pretty fun in FFIX because there are so many variables you can grind. Besides the obvious EXP and AP, you can grind “steals” to pump up Zidane’s Thievery skill, kill dragons for Freya’s Dragon Crest, or catch frogs for Quina’s Frog Drop (also eating enemies to gain more blue magic). Oh, and then there’s Tetra Master, which is pretty fun but no where near as engaging for me as Triple Triad in FFVIII was (I’m pretty sure I spent more time playing that card game in 8 than actually progressing the plot, probably because the plot was so horrific).

That being said, I’m really awful at time management. That’s why I’ve never beaten half the RPGs I’ve started, and why I have no interest in playing any MMORPGs. I tend to like short, challenging games like Megaman because the challenge motivates me to keep trying, and the brevity allows me finish the game within just a few hours of play. Recently I’ve picked up Cave Story on Steam, and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously; if you haven’t played it, and would like a short but fun game to run through, I’d highly recommend it.

At the time of purchase I was not aware of the original version, but I’ve since played both and can attest that the original is practically the same game (I do like the remastered music in Cave Story+ though). I should’ve clarified that I recommend the freeware version as well, not just Cave Story+.